


'THOMAS'

by Luv_Bowie_Luver



Category: David Bowie (Musician), Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Man Who Fell to Earth - Walter Tevis
Genre: Alien Abduction, Aliens, Gen, Surgery, UFO - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 13:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3897811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luv_Bowie_Luver/pseuds/Luv_Bowie_Luver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let's turn the tables, shall we? Aliens are abducting people from Earth and taking them to a world called Anthea. Here, they are stripped down and thrown into a white waiting room where they will wait for their captors to perform tests on them. During their time in the waiting room, someone is sitting nearby, ready to talk or hold their hand if they feel the need. He appears to be human, just like them but there's something a bit off about the man who calls himself:  'Thomas'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Such Fragile Beings

The light was blinding him as he lay upon the cold, metal table. Strapped into place and stripped of all his clothes, his body no longer trembled with fear as it had done many times before. He'd been in this hellish place for five days now, each day brought with it a new set of painful experiments and probing machines that left nothing secret about his body. Every night he had prayed for death and each time he awoke the next day, he cursed his deity and swore at the creatures who entered the waiting room to drag him back to the lab.  
  
  
He was given anesthetic and drifted into a deep sleep, knowing he'd only come out of it in a lot more pain than the previous day. His only solace and source of comfort, were his thoughts of Thomas - the only other human man in the waiting room. Thomas had been a good friend and kept him calm during this terrifying time, no matter how bad it got; he knew he would wake up to Thomas' gentle voice and his strangely mismatched eyes. But it was not meant to be, for this time his body had simply had enough. Yellow eyes met with yellow eyes as the heart monitor sounded the alarm, but nobody moved to turn it off.  
  
  
"What now?" asked a nurse. The surgeon turned towards the guards, waiting by the door.  
  
  
"Get me another one," he said firmly, "get me another _Earthling!_ "


	2. Elise

It was a beautiful night, warm with a nice breeze blowing through her hair as she walked home along the empty street. Elise always took this route home because it was the shortest way and these roads were always abandoned at night so she had no worries about being jumped or raped. There wasn't any moon tonight, so she hurried her steps anyway and only stopped when she heard a distant hum in the sky. A wild wind whipped up suddenly and a bright light stung her eyes, she held up her hands to shield them and then everything went dark. She felt herself floating slowly, right before she fainted and the dark street left below revealed no signs of her ever being there.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Elise slowly opened her eyes, she was being stripped of her clothes by these strange looking creatures and she started to scream loudly in a panic. They dragged her along a hallway, towards a door and Elise struggled to get away from them. They did not seem very strong, but there were many of them and she was weakened because of her body trembling with terror. She heard one of them talking, but she couldn't understand the language and she screamed as she was shoved into a white room. The door was closed behind her, shut tight with an electronic locking mechanism. Elise scrambled into the corner, hugging her knees to her chest and sobbing hard. Her hair covered her face, her body shook with fear and she tried desperately to wake up because this just couldn't be happening.


	3. 'Thomas'

He was waiting for them to bring Leo back, it had been hours now and he'd heard nothing from anyone. He stood up and paced along the back wall for a while, turning when the door finally opened but Leo was not brought back in to him. Instead, someone else was thrust into the waiting room and the door was slammed shut. He watched as the person they had brought in stumbled towards the corner that all newbies sought refuge in, she sat down and curled up into herself; sobbing. He was familiar with this scenario, it had happened quite a number of times but this was the first woman he had ever seen brought in.  
  
  
He approached the shaking woman slowly, she seemed to hear him as she jerked her head up fearfully. Elise gasped when she heard something moving towards her, she looked up quickly and noticed a man standing nearby. She looked him over with wide eyes, but saw nothing that suggested he was an alien so she started to calm down a little.  
  
  
"Who... Who are you?" she stammered timidly. He offered her no sympathetic smile as he knelt down beside her, but she noticed that he seemed quite unharmed so she calmed down some more.  
  
  
"My name is Thomas," he told her in such a gentle voice, that she felt no fear towards him at all.  
  
  



	4. Just Doing My Job

"What is this place?" she whispered, her voice trembling.  
  
  
"It's a laboratory," Thomas replied calmly.  
  
  
The lab was illegally abducting Earthlings and performing experiments on them, but their exact purpose was unknown to him. He was only here to help the humans feel comfortable while they were in the waiting room, which also became a sort of recovery room after surgery. Before Thomas was brought in, they were losing humans to heart attacks and strokes because they were so terrified and nothing useful could be gained from a corpse. So a plan was devised and Thomas had proved to be very helpful, keeping the humans calm and making sure they were as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. Elise shuddered at the word, Thomas sat down beside her and she leaned into him for warmth.  
  
  
"How long have you been here?" she asked him, as he put his arm around her to help her warm up.  
  
  
"A long time," he replied quietly.  
  
  
"So you know what's going to happen then?" Elise questioned him.  
  
  
He turned away for a moment, because he knew exactly what was going to happen to her. It had happened to the last five humans he had met, including Leo apparently. Thomas wasn't a hundred percent sure of where the humans went when they vanished, all he knew was that another one would be brought along but he never saw the previous one again. Thomas was a romantic, he liked to assume they simply finished with the humans and let them go home.  
  
  
"When will I get my clothes back?" Elise asked him when Thomas failed to answer her last question.  
  
  
"Soon," Thomas replied, turning his gaze back to hers, "try not to worry too much, I'll be right here with you whenever you need me."  
  
  
"I'm scared," Elise admitted, looking at his eyes and noticing they were slightly odd.  
  
  
"Don't be," Thomas reassured her, "it'll be alright.... um... "  
  
  
"Elise," she introduced herself and he finally smiled warmly at her.  
  
  
"Elise," he repeated, "nothing bad is going to happen to you, they're just curious that's all."  Elise felt much better and she managed a small smile back at him now.  
  
  
"There you go," Thomas rubbed her back, "you'll be fine. Just go along with whatever they want to do, it's easier if you don't struggle."  
  
  
"Alright," Elise agreed, "will you stay with me?"  
  
  
"Of course," Thomas nodded, for that's what he was being hired to do.  
  
  
She lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep; exhausted. Thomas glanced up as the door opened and Elise was given a drug to keep her sleeping, then they took her away.


	5. Homesick

When Elise next woke up, she was clothed and on a bed in the white room where she'd fallen asleep. It was morning, though she wouldn't know it because the lab was deep underground. Thomas was right there in the room with her, just as he had promised he would be. When he noticed her eyes were open, he got up and walked over to her with a light smile.  
  
  
"How do you feel?" he asked her.  
  
  
"Now that you've asked," Elise slowly sat up, "my stomach kind of hurts."  She lifted up her shirt and started to gasp in panic, she was wrapped in bandages and there was blood and stitches.  
  
  
"What happened?!" Elise demanded fearfully.  Thomas gently pulled her shirt back down.  
  
  
"It's what they do," he said gently, "like I said before, they're curious."  Elise started to sob again, so he put his arms around her like he had been trained to do.  
  
  
"How long until I can go home?" she cried into his chest.  
  
  
"Usually about five days," Thomas replied knowingly.  
  
  
"What makes you so sure?" asked Elise.  
  
  
"Everyone who comes here stays for about that long," Thomas answered her.  
  
  
"Then what happens?" frowned Elise. Thomas shrugged.  
  
  
"I suppose they go home," he said softly, turning to look at her with a smile again.  
  
  
It was a comforting gesture that had taken him a while to perfect, though it was an empty and painted on expression. He did not feel emotions, he had simply learned to imitate them. Elise drew closer to him and shivered, his answer was alright but it was the shrug of his shoulders that bothered her. It meant he was only guessing and didn't actually know what happened after five days.  
  
  
"Why are you still here if everyone else gets to go home?" she decided to take his answer because anything else was too frightening to think about.  
  
  
He was silent for a while, it wasn't the first time he had been asked the question but it gave him pause each time he heard it. He got to go home whenever he chose to leave this place, be with his wife and children; as long as he said nothing of this place and came back when he was needed.  
  
  
"Do you have family waiting for you?" he avoided the question.  
  
  
"Only my mother," replied Elise, "she's going to be worried sick about me."  She drew back from him and studied his face for a moment.  
  
  
"Thomas, where are we, exactly?" she asked him.  
  
  
"Well," Thomas shifted uncomfortably, "I know we're not on Earth."  Elise had a feeling he might say something like that, but actually hearing it made her knees feel like they were made of goo.  
  
  
"So they really _are_ aliens and not just _disguising_ themselves?" she whispered fearfully.  
  
  
"I'm afraid so," Thomas replied softly, "but they're not all like this. Most of them are actually really nice."  
  
  
"How do you know that?" asked Elise.  
  
  
"Well," Thomas lowered his gaze, "because... I mean, they couldn't be, could they? It'd be unfair to judge an entire race based on just these few."  
  
  
"I suppose you're right," Elise agreed, "I guess we just got unlucky, huh?"  Thomas hugged her, trying to comfort her as she had started trembling again.


	6. Getting Attached

"So what do we do for the next five days?" Elise tried to take her mind off the pain in her stomach.  
  
  
"What would you like to do?" Thomas asked her.  
  
  
"Can we watch TV?" she asked him.  
  
  
"If you wish," Thomas stood up and walked over to a cabinet.  
  
  
He opened it up and switched on the small television it contained. He turned the dial a few times until a snowy picture faded into view, then he turned the volume up and Elise began to relax as she watched the unfamiliar programs that had beamed out here from Earth many years ago but were only just reaching this part of the universe right now.  
  
  
"Are you hungry?" Thomas asked her.  
  
  
"No, thank you," Elise replied, her stomach too sore for her to feel hunger just yet. Thomas walked back over to sit with Elise, her hand snaked into his and he looked down as she curled her fingers. The gesture was unfamiliar, as none of the male humans had ever held his hand. He slowly curled his own fingers the way she had done with hers and was rewarded with a smile from the woman. Thomas let out a silent sigh of relief, offering her a comforting smile in return. Elise was wary of the smiles that Thomas showed her, something was not quite right about them but she couldn't put her finger on it.  
  
  
They seemed rehearsed, almost forced but then stuck in outer space and far from Earth - who could really actually want to smile?  So she didn't think to question it, because she really couldn't blame him.  
  
  
"I imagine my mother used to watch these shows with gran," Elise spoke quietly, trying to forget their current situation, "she was a lovely old woman, my gran. She always took me to the park when I was growing up and we'd have the best time. Some of my favorite memories are the times we shared together."  
  
  
Thomas watched her expression as she reminisced about her childhood, she appeared both happy and sad at the exact same time and it confused him greatly. So much more could be learned from such a species by just talking to them, rather than cutting them open. He remained silent and did not interrupt her as she seemed to doze off with a half smile on her face. Such courage these beings displayed, even when faced with something as terrifying as alien abduction; they still somehow managed to keep it together somewhat. Of course, Thomas played a huge role in that for Elise because if she didn't have him to connect with, she may very well have had a heart attack by now. He left the television on, as it seemed to have calmed her quite a lot.


	7. One Of Us

The door opened and Aurora, someone Thomas was familiar with outside of this place, stood there looking at Elise curiously.  
  
  
"How is the human?" she asked.  
  
  
"Her name is Elise," replied Thomas.  
  
  
"I asked how it was feeling," Aurora said calmly, "not what you have named it."  
  
  
"She will be hungry soon," Thomas answered her with a light frown, "and she needs some painkillers. I think the anesthetic is starting to wear off.. "  
  
  
Aurora nodded and left the room, locking the door behind her. Thomas turned as Elise shifted uncomfortably on the bed, he sat by her side and gently held her hand as she had done to him earlier. Elise was vaguely aware of this and she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, comforted by the familiar, human gesture.  
  
  
Aurora returned shortly with some food and a couple of pills, she set down the tray and glanced at Thomas with a tilt of her head.  
  
  
"You behave strangely," she told him, "your job is to calm the human, not engage with it."  Thomas slowly withdrew his hand from Elise's, standing up and turning to face Aurora.  
  
  
"I wasn't engaging," Thomas retorted angrily. Aurora looked surprised.  
  
  
"You have been in that artificial flesh for too long," she said firmly, "your displays of human emotion disturbs me. You must not lose sight of who you really are.. "  
  
  
Thomas picked up the tray and set it upon a nearby table, ignoring the remarks.  
  
  
"Your wife worries about you," Aurora prompted him and Thomas spun around to face her once more.  
  
  
"Leave my family out of this!" he spat.  
  
  
Aurora looked taken aback by his outburst, turned on her heel and left silently. Thomas sat beside Elise and sighed heavily, running his fingers through his hair and closing his eyes. The task of keeping the humans calm had been a real learning curve for him but it was no longer just about their emotional state. It was more about getting to know them, who they were and what they did. Thomas had gained quite a bit of knowledge about Earth, just by talking to the humans and listening to them when they just talked to him out of sheer necessity for contact with another person. He tried to imagine being all alone on an alien planet, with not a single other of his kind to converse with and he shuddered. What utter _Hell._  
  
  
He got up and went to the sofa to rest his eyes for a while, he didn't require much sleep but it was about time he got some while she was quiet.


	8. Not Human

He awoke some hours later to the sound of a sharp yelp and he instantly sat up, looking over at Elise.  
  
  
She had woken and tried to get up, but the intense pain in her stomach prevented her from doing so. Thomas stood and brought her the tray, lifting a glass of water to her lips as she took the pills.  
  
  
"Those should help with the pain," Thomas informed her, "try to eat something, it will help you get stronger."  
  
  
"Thank you, Thomas," Elise picked at the food, it was strange but not entirely disagreeable.  
  
  
What she wouldn't give for something more familiar, like an apple or some toast. She looked wistful as she thought of how she'd taken such simple things for granted, wondering if she'd ever see or taste such simple pleasures of home again.  The painkillers worked incredibly well once they mixed with the food she had eaten and Elise could sit up comfortably after a while. She leaned in and kissed Thomas on the cheek, smiling at him in gratitude. If it were not for him, she would have gone mad within an hour of arriving here. Thomas was now faced with yet another unfamiliar gesture, he froze in place and tried to think of what the typical response might be. Elise averted her gaze when he reacted in this way.  
  
  
"I'm sorry," she said softly, "that was inappropriate, you barely even know me."  Thomas internally felt relieved, she had spared him from having to admit that he had no idea what she'd just done.  
  
  
"Never mind," he reassured her, "but what.. what was it for?" He tried to ask her of the gesture, trying to become familiar with it.  
  
  
"I wanted to show you my appreciation," Elise explained.  
  
  
Thomas nodded mutely, he would have to remember that one but he wasn't sure how she'd done it. His fingertips hesitantly went to her lips and Elise looked at his eyes curiously, they were intently focused upon her mouth and she slowly closed her eyes and kissed. Thomas stared at her mouth as she kissed the tips of his fingers, fascinated by the movement and how it felt. Elise opened her eyes, a hint of nervousness and fear within them.  
  
  
"You're not really human, are you?" she asked him quietly. Thomas withdrew his hand and averted his stare downwards.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Does it bother you?" he asked, trembling slightly at being discovered.  
  



	9. Friendship

She was much stronger than him, even though she was wounded. He felt panicked and Elise could see the visible fear in his body language, she found it mildly amusing given the circumstances.  She sat up a little more and lifted his chin, turning his face towards hers. Thomas pulled back as she leaned in too close, so she placed her hand at the back of his head and drew him in; kissing his mouth softly. Moving back, their eyes meeting nervously, Elise let him go. Thomas stood up and backed away, touching his lips curiously.  
  
  
"It's just a kiss," Elise found his skittish behavior amusing, "it's a sign of affection."  Thomas looked puzzled.  
  
  
"I thought you said it was a show of appreciation?" he questioned her. Elise faltered, well he had her there.  
  
  
"It can mean different things," she told him. Thomas kept his distance from her, now that she knew about him. Humans were generally quite predictable, but this hadn't ever come up before.  
  
  
"You don't look anything like the others," Elise told him, looking him over for any flaws that might have given him away if she'd been suspicious earlier.  
  
  
"It.. It's sort of like a costume really," Thomas admitted.  
  
  
Elise wanted him to come back over and be close to her again, as frightened as she was that she shared a room with one of those things, she had grown quite fond of Thomas. He was different somehow..  
  
  
"Please don't be afraid of me," Elise felt weird saying that to him, she thought it should have been the other way around to be honest.  
  
  
His wide eyes were much like those of a baby bird's, it was kind of endearing. Thomas stayed where he was for the time being, his position had been compromised and he was unsure of how to go about handling it. Elise sat back and decided to treat the situation like she would with a nervous new addition to her home, such as a cat. Perhaps if she ignored him, he would calm down and come back over to her when he felt ready. She pulled the tray towards herself once more, finishing up the last of the food that had been given to her.  
  
His speaking skills were flawless, she never would have guessed that English was not his first language. Thomas sat down and continued to watch Elise as she ate her meal, she didn't seem too badly phased by the fact that he was not human and he was impressed by how well she handled herself. After she had cleared the tray of all but a few crumbs, Thomas stood up and slowly approached her. She sat perfectly still while he took the tray from her, then she watched him place it by the door and turn back to her.  
  
  
"I'm finished with this water," she told him, holding out the half full glass.  
  
  
"Don't waste it," Thomas replied quickly.  
  
  
"It's just water," Elise shrugged.  Thomas carefully accepted the glass from her, took it over to the counter nearby and sat it down gently.  
  
  
"Perhaps you will get thirsty later," he explained. Elise found this behavior quite strange but had to remind herself that he was one of those aliens, so his mannerisms weren't going to be _entirely_ human.


	10. Complications

She lay back down into the pillows and winced, which had his attention immediately.  
  
  
"Are you in pain?" he asked her.  
  
  
"Yes, actually," Elise replied, struggling not to cry. Thomas walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge of it, looking down at her in wonder.  
  
  
"It shouldn't be hurting," he told her, "those pills are supposed to last for hours yet."  
  
  
"I'm sorry," Elise allowed a tear to trickle down her cheek, "it just really hurts, Thomas.. "  She felt like throwing up, such was the intensity of the pain now growing ever stronger. Thomas looked at her forehead as it began to bead with droplets of perspiration, he took her hand and held it gently.  
  
  
"Try to get some sleep," he told her softly, "I will see if I can get you some stronger pills next time someone comes in, alright?"  
  
  
Elise nodded and smiled at him as he leaned over and kissed her forehead, he got up and walked over to the armchair to watch her fall asleep but something was wrong. As he sat down and looked back over at her, Elise closed her eyes and started to make small noises that grew steadily louder. She somehow had managed to drift into a light slumber, however the pain was reaching her even through the recesses of sleep. Thomas stood up and walked over to the door, tapping on it to signal the guard. It opened up, Thomas stepped out of the waiting room and hesitated when he saw that nobody had gone home yet.  
  
  
"She needs more painkillers," Thomas spoke with determination, "somebody get me some immediately!"  He was approached by Aurora.  
  
  
"She has had too much already!" Aurora told him.  
  
  
"She's in pain," Thomas insisted, "please, Aurora. Can't you do something?"  Aurora shook her head, no.  
  
  
"There would be little point, anyway," she informed him. Thomas looked at her curiously.  
  
  
"What do you mean?" he asked her, "she's moaning, is there nothing we can do to help her?"  
  
  
"They'll take her tonight," Aurora explained gently, "she will be anesthetized."  
  
  
"Take her?" Thomas frowned, "again? But they just took her last night."  
  
  
"I am aware of that," Aurora told him, "but she is a female. They found some things in her they'd very much like to explore again."  
  
  
"But they can't!" Thomas raised his voice, startling Aurora, "if they open her up twice in two days, she won't survive!"  
  
  
"Calm yourself!" Aurora scolded him quietly, "you're behaving like a human!"  
  
  
"So what if I am?" Thomas stared at her in defiance, "I won't let you take her."  
  
  
"Step aside," Aurora warned him.  Thomas stood in the doorway, his gaze fixed upon hers.  
  
  
"No," he said firmly. Aurora looked around nervously, she didn't want him to get into trouble.  
  
  
"You are becoming _just like_ these _insects!_ " she snapped at him, "step aside, _please!_ Or they might wish to open _you_ up instead!"  Thomas faltered fearfully as the gurney was wheeled towards him, they pushed roughly past him and he could only stand by and watch as they took her away again.  
  
  
"Thomas!" Elise cried out as she was wheeled past him, "Thomas, what's going on?!"  
  
  
He closed his eyes, unable to look at her desperately staring wide eyes. She screamed as they wheeled her down the hallway, until they gave her an injection to make her sleep. Thomas sat down in the armchair quietly, Aurora remained in the doorway and watched him with an incline of her head.  
  
  
"Are you not going home?" she asked him.  He looked up at her and shook his head.  
  
  
"No," he said calmly, "I shall wait here for Elise."  Aurora gazed at him for a while longer, then she turned and locked him in.


	11. Starting Over

Thomas waited for hours, surely they had finished by now?  
  
  
It must have been almost morning when the door opened again, Thomas stood up and stepped forwards but then stopped when he saw only Aurora.  
  
  
"Where is she?" Thomas asked her, "where.. where's Elise?"  Aurora said nothing, averting her gaze.  
  
  
"Aurora, please.. "  Thomas spoke again, "where is she? Where's... "  
  
  
He trailed off, knowing somehow that she would not be coming back this time. He closed his eyes, perhaps he was simply dreaming or something? Thomas felt a hot, wet substance trickle down his cheek and he opened his eyes to see Aurora staring at him. He fell back against the wall, ran his fingers through his hair and then started sobbing hard into his hands as they covered his face.  
  
  
"Stop that at once!" Aurora scolded him, "if they catch you like this, who knows what they might do to you?!"  
  
  
But he could not help it, the feelings were real and so were the tears. He slid down the wall and onto the floor, his head lowered in pure sadness and very real, very human grief. Aurora looked around warily, if they saw him in this state he was in danger of becoming the next curiosity to open up and play around with.  
  
  
" _Please_ ," she hissed to him quickly, " _they're_ _coming!_ "  
  
  
Thomas furrowed his brow as he heard someone screaming along the hallway, he slowly got to his feet and gazed hopefully at the doorway.  
  
  
"Elise?" he wiped his tears away with his hands. A woman was thrust into the waiting room, she cringed and cowered in the corner; the same way all newbies did each and every single time.  
  
  
"Got you a new playmate!" someone spoke harshly and the door was slammed shut. Thomas peered around at the sobbing woman, she was hugging her knees to her chest and crying uncontrollably. He approached her slowly, his body shaking slightly. She gasped and looked up at him sharply, her eyes studying him; taking in his human features.  
  
  
"Who.. Who are you?" she asked, her voice trembling. He knelt down beside her and carefully held out his arms, so she shifted to snuggle up into his offered embrace. His soft eyes once again became hardened.  
  
  
"My name," he said quietly, his gentle voice calming her easily, "is _Thomas_.. "

 

 

 

*

=THE END=


End file.
